


i'll just wait

by laurapxlmer



Category: Larry stylinson (fandom), One Direction (Band)
Genre: AU, Alternate Universe, M/M, Neighbors, Nurse Harry, Pregnant Gemma, Teacher Louis, a fic from one of those list of aus all over tumblr, midnight shopping trips
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-06-17
Updated: 2015-06-17
Packaged: 2018-04-04 22:06:44
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,496
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4154748
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/laurapxlmer/pseuds/laurapxlmer
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Harry goes to the store at two in the morning for his sister; he doesn't expect to trip over the pretty boy from across the hall on his way out.<br/>(One of those au's from those long lists that are all over tumblr)</p>
            </blockquote>





	i'll just wait

“I need pickles and chocolate chip mint ice cream immediately,” is not something Harry thought he’d ever wake up hearing. But, Harry reasons, he probably should have prepared for that when he invited his extremely pregnant sister to live with him for two weeks while her husband is back home for his mum’s birthday party for a week.

 

“Wha?” he grumbles, rolling over to see Gemma smiling brightly at him. “You want what?”

 

“Please, Haz?” she asks with a pout. “I forgot to get pickles at the store earlier, and I just finished off the ice cream.”

 

Harry sighs. “Gem, it’s –“ Harry picks up his phone and groans when he sees the time, “—two in the morning. Can you not wait a few hours?”

 

“I can, little Nolan can’t. Are you going to deny your nephew and godson his nutrition?”

 

Harry grumbles but gets up and puts on some shoes and a hoodie. “I’m going to kill Niall for leaving.”

 

“You’re the best, little brother.”

 

Harry stumbles around, nearly avoids tripping Duchess, his incredibly lazy fat white cat that is _nothing_ like her namesake, and finally makes his way to the door. “Keys,” he mumbles to himself. “I need keys.”

 

He finds his keys and grabs his wallet before stepping out into the hallway.

 

And almost stepping on a body.

 

Harry’s first thought, naturally, is that he’s just stumbled across a dead body. He wonders who it is, who killed this poor lad, he doesn’t look much bigger than a teenager, it wasn’t a suicide was it, who would leave a dead body in the middle –

 

But then the boy lets out a little snore, and Harry sucks in a breath he didn’t realize he was holding. Just sleeping then.

 

Wait. Why is he sleeping in the hallway? Harry moves around, cautious not to trip on air – it wouldn’t be the first time – and wake the boy, only to see that it’s his neighbor from across the hall, the one he sees around occasionally, the extremely fit one.

 

This boy, either Payne or Tomlinson, as the nameplate outside the flat complex says, is usually rugged and chiseled and looks like he wants you to call him daddy (not that Harry is opposed to calling attractive men daddy); but like this, sleeping in a little ball on the floor across from his flat in grey sweats and a maroon tshirt, he looks small, soft, and adorable. Absolutely adorable. Harry definitely regrets not talking to him in the last six months he’s lived here.

 

He contemplates waking the boy up, but thinks better of it. He doesn’t want to interrupt his sleep.

 

But it’ll ruin his back if he sleeps on the floor much longer. And he must be cold, the flats in this building always run a bit chilly, and the halls are worse.

 

Harry is leaning down to wake the boy, and offer up his couch for the night, but thinks better of it, as he doesn’t actually know the guy and his pregnant sister and unborn nephew are in there.

 

So he makes up his mind to hurry and get Gemma’s things, because he’s already been standing out here for five minutes, and he’ll ask Gemma about this boy sleeping on the couch for the night when he gets back. Yeah. Solid plan.

 

At the store, Harry isn’t sure what brand of ice cream to get, because he knows Gemma prefers one over the other, so he ends up getting three types of the same flavor of ice cream, two jars of pickles, and a jar of peanut butter. They had been running low and it was one of his sister’s favorites on any kind of breakfast food.

 

“Pregnant wife?” the old woman at the counter asked.

 

Harry is a little grumpy from being woken up so early, and barely resists saying _obviously it’s for a pregnant woman, who else gets pickles and ice cream at this hour?_ But he doesn’t want to take out his grumpiness on this poor lady. “My sister, actually. Her husband is out of town, so she’s staying with me for the week.”

 

The woman, Patrice, as her nametag reads, laughs. “Rough time to leave, going by the pickles. Good luck with that, sweetie. Give her my best.”

 

“Thank you. Hope you have a wonderful night,” Harry says with a smile and a wave as he’s leaving the store.

 

When he gets back to his flat, he’s all but forgotten about the sleeping man in the hall, still in the same spot, curled up facing away from the wall. He rushes inside to find Gemma bouncing on her yoga ball irritably. “H, you’re back, fucking finally. I’m starving.”

 

“I wasn’t sure which one it was, so I got all three,” Harry explains as he takes out the ice creams and puts each tub in the freezer.

 

“Bluebell, please,” she says. “I don’t want pickles right now though.” Gemma giggles and Harry rolls his eyes.

 

“Hey, Gem?” Harry asks as he’s scooping ice cream into a bowl. “That fit guy across the hall, remember I’ve told you about him?” Gemma mm’s in agreement around a mouth full of ice cream. “He’s sleeping on the floor in the hallway without a blanket or anything. Do you think I should let him sleep on the couch for the night?”

 

Gemma gives Harry a look that shows how stupid she thinks he is. “You would let a stranger sleep on your couch because he’s fit?” Harry opens his mouth to answer before his sister cuts him off. “Go for it. I’ll laugh at you when we get murdered though.”

 

 

Harry scoffs at Gemma. “No, you donut, it isn’t just because he’s fit. It’s because he seems nice and he’s sleeping out in the hallway because something obviously happened to where he can’t sleep in his flat.” Harry pauses and remembers why he’d planned on asking Gemma. “The reason I asked was to make sure it wouldn’t make you uncomfortable.”

 

Gemma laughs and takes the last bite of her ice cream. “Mum always said your kindness would get you killed.”

 

“She said to kill people with kindness,” Harry points out.

 

“Pregnancy brain, shut up, dweeb.” Gemma puts her bowl in the sink. “Try not to be too loud when you come to bed, little brother.”

 

Harry smiles brightly at Gemma and walks from his spot in the kitchen to give her a kiss on the cheek. “Night, Iced Gem.” He then goes to the door and sends a silent prayer that he won’t be murdered. He steps into the hallway to see that the boy has moved into what seems like an even more uncomfortable position.

 

 _Here goes nothing_.

 

He shakes the boy lightly. “Hello… yoo hoo… wake up sleepy head…” Harry gives the boy another shake, a little harder this time. The boy shoots straight up with an alarmed look on his face and hits Harry right in the nose. “Oops. Sorry to scare you.” Harry rubs his nose, which thankfully was not broken by the boy’s head.

 

The boy looks around confused, rubs his eyes, and blinks curiously. “Hi. Was I bothering you sleeping here?”

 

Harry sits criss-cross on the ground in front of him and chuckles. “No, I was wondering why you were out here. And if you’d like a couch to sleep on instead of a floor, a blanket and a pillow as well.”

 

The boy looks taken aback. “You don’t know me but you’re offering me your couch?”

 

“Yeah, I guess so,” Harry says with a shrug. “I’ve seen you around and I don’t think you’re a serial killer.”

 

The boy smiles at that. “Louis Tomlinson.”

 

“Harry Styles.” Harry offers his hand to Louis – _Louis,_ of course this beautiful person has a beautiful name – who shakes it firmly. Harry’s mum always told him to look for a man with a good strong handshake. Harry stands up without letting go of Louis’s hand, bringing them standing nose to forehead. He really is quite tiny.

 

“I believe you said something about a couch?”

 

Harry nods with a smile. “On one condition. I really want to know why you’re sleeping in the hallway.” Harry opens his door and leads Louis into the flat, shutting and locking the door behind him.

 

Louis is looking around the flat in curiosity. “Family?” he asks, walking over to a wall of framed pictures.

 

“Some,” Harry tells him, walking over. He points to a picture of Gemma sitting on his lap. “That’s my sister, Gemma, she’s here for the week, actually. She’s pregnant and her husband is in Ireland with his family for a week.” Louis nods and Harry motions to the picture next to it, a selfie Niall had taken at a Fleetwood Mac concert a few months ago. “That’s her husband, also my best mate, Niall.”

 

“They look like a cute couple,” Louis says; he’s looking around at the others, pictures from birthday parties and weddings and game nights. “Is this one theirs?”

 

Harry looks to where Louis is pointing, a picture of Harry holding Lux upside down. “My goddaughter, actually. Niall and Gems are only on their first, this is my tattoo artist’s daughter.”

 

“You have tattoos?” Louis asks, turning to Harry and—

 

“Are you checking me out?” blurts Harry, quickly putting both hands over his mouth. His eyes are wide.

 

Louis laughs. “I check you out every time I see you, Harry.” Harry fish mouths for a moment, not knowing what to say. Louis backtracks. “I’m sorry if that made you uncomfortable, oh god, I’ve just ruined a night of not sleeping on the floor in the hall. I’m sorry I’ll just. Go.”

 

Harry laughs. “No, don’t.” He has to stop talking in order to get his giggles under control. “It’s fine. I was hoping you were. I mean, I check you out too. Because you’re fit. That’s why I wanted you to sleep in here.” Louis is smirking. “Well that’s not _why_ but it’s why I trusted you in my flat with my pregnant sister.”

 

“So you only trust fit men who sleep on floors?”

 

Harry shakes his head. “No, that’s not—“

 

“Babe,” Louis says with a small laugh. “Joking.”

 

“Oh.” Harry pauses. “Stay right here, I’ll go get some sheets and a blanket or two and some pillows.”

 

Louis smiles softly. “Thanks.”

 

Harry comes back five minutes later with a set of sheets that have daisies on them, two pillows, and three quilts of different shapes, sizes, patters, and ages. “I wasn’t sure if you had a preference. Unfortunately, these are the only sheets I have that will fit the couch.”

 

Giggling, Louis says, “They’re great, thank you so much for letting me stay here.”

 

Harry tucks in the sheet around the couch cushions, covering the tan velvet with white and yellow flowers. “Oh, you still can’t stay just yet. You’ve yet to tell me why you were in the hallway.”

 

Louis sighs and picks up the pillows, putting them both on the side of the couch closest to the kitchen. “My roommate, Liam, has a girlfriend who’s still in uni. Great girl, love her to bits, but she’s been studying abroad and they haven’t seen each other in four months.”

 

“Say no more.” Harry holds up a hand. “Sounds awful.”

 

“It is!” Louis all but shouts. “Bloody heterosexual sex, why do they have to make it sound like a cheap porno all the time?” Harry lets out one of his loud, barking laughs that he despises before throwing his hand over his mouth. Louis smiles brightly, eyes crinkling. “That is the cutest thing I’ve ever heard.”

 

Harry shakes his head. He’s about to go on about this one time when he was holding Lux just after she’d turned six months old and made that noise, and she peed instantly and cried for an hour straight, but Gemma yells from Harry’s bedroom, “If you two don’t shut your fuckin’ mouths, I’ll make you both sleep in the hall!”

 

“Sorry, Gem!” Harry yells back.

 

“Your sister hates me, probably,” Louis sighs dramatically. “Now how am I going to get her permission to take you out on a date some time?”

 

Harry blushes instantly. “Go to bed, Louis, it’s half past three. Do you need to get up early?”

 

“I usually get up at half past six, but I showered before going out into the hall to save myself from doing it in the morning. So seven, probably. I have a phone alarm though, I can let myself out so you don’t have to wake up.”

 

“I have to get up at quarter till seven anyway, so I’ll be sure to get you up,” Harry lies. Tomorrow is Thursday, and he doesn’t work on Thursdays until noon. It’s his only day to have a lie in other than Sundays when he has the entire day off and every other Saturday. He’ll just use his early morning to do more extensive pregnancy food shopping and go on a run.

 

“If you’re sure,” Louis says. “What do you do?”

 

“I’m a nurse at the children’s hospital, actually. I work in the ER.”

 

“Shit, mate, that must suck. All those little kids coming in injured.”

 

Harry smiles and says, “It’s mostly just a lot of broken arms and super high fevers. I’ve only been out of school a few months, and I’ve only had one kid die, and he was hit by a drunk driver and would have had a tough life if he’d lived.”

 

Louis shakes his head with a frown on his face. “Still. If one of my kids—“

 

“You have kids?” Harry asks, a bit shocked.

 

“What? _Oh!_ No, I teach grade four at the school down the road. I just think of them as mine, so—“

 

“Shut up!” Gemma hollers, sounding more irritated than the first time she called out at them to be quiet.

 

Harry whispers, “Sorry, but I think we should go to bed now.”

 

“Good idea, she sounds a bit scary.”

 

“Only when pregnant or there’s a really good sale she wants to get to.” Harry pauses. “My room is on the right, you can come get me if you need something. Help yourself to anything in the kitchen.”

 

Louis nods. “Goodnight, and thank you again.”

 

Harry smiles. “Night, Lou.”

 

\--

 

Louis wakes up more confused than he should be considering he doesn’t think he drank last night.

 

Looking around from where he lays on a surprisingly comfortable couch, he sees he’s in a strange flat with the same layout as his, only decorated differently. He hears light singing coming from the kitchen, along with the smell of bacon. There’s a fat white cat by his feet. He sits up and looks around a little more, sees a wall of pictures, dark curtains pulled over a window and blocking out the early morning sun.

 

And then he remembers.

 

Sophia coming home from the states, Liam taking her out to a nice dinner then to bed. Louis trying to ignore their noises, eventually yelling at the couple before storming out into the hallway with nothing but his phone and key. And _Harry_.

 

Harry, the gorgeous creature that lives across the hall from Louis and Liam, who’s always wearing something ridiculous that would make anyone else look god-awful. Harry who always helps Mrs. Greene, the old lady a floor above them, bring up her groceries; who has a garden with flowers and tomatoes on his balcony; who Louis has had a schoolboy crush on for months.

 

Who lets strange men sleep on his couch.

 

Louis sits up and pulls the covers off of himself, careful not to disrupt the cat, and follows the singing, _Harry’s singing_ , into the kitchen and lets out a smile.

 

Harry’s phone lies on the counter playing a [familiar tune](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tbIEwIwYz-c) Louis can’t quite place, but Harry is singing along with it as if it was his, beautiful, powerful voice and all. “Said all that I wanted was you,” he crooned. “You made all—“

 

“Good morning,” Louis says, eyes crinkling from his smile, right as Harry as singing about his dreams coming true.

 

Harry jumps and turns, blushing and shutting the music off of his phone. “Sorry I woke you. Can’t help but sing along when New Kids comes on.”

 

Louis nods and laughs. “More of an Backstreet fan, meself.”

 

“Get out of my flat now,” Harry demands sternly, but the smile on his face says he doesn’t mean one word. “How did you sleep?”

 

“Good. Forgot where I was when I woke up.”

 

Harry smirks. “That happen often?”

 

“Not as often as you’d think,” Louis says quietly, a small smile playing at his lips. “Is that bacon I smell?”

 

Nodding, Harry says, “It’s just about done, too. It’s Gemma’s favorite, I’m sorry if you don’t like bacon and toast.”

 

Louis laughs. “I don’t know what you’re on, mate, but I love bacon. I make bacon and toast sandwiches at least once a week, when my flatmate cooks bacon for himself. I just steal some and make the toast.”

 

“Why don’t you cook your own?” Harry asks.

 

“I’d burn the building down if I tried cooking anything with grease. I can make mac and cheese and a mean bowl of cereal, though that’s about it.”

 

“Please tell me that isn’t all that you eat,” Harry groans, shaking his head and hoping that the answer is no.

 

“Um,” Louis starts, but Harry cuts him off.

 

“I’m going to start making you breakfast in the mornings. Or you and your flatmate can come ‘round for dinner.” Harry shakes his head and mumbles, “How does he have that body eating like that.”

 

“I chase after little kids all day and help coach footy at school,” Louis answers, causing Harry to turn as red as the strawberry jelly he’s spreading on Gemma’s toast.

 

“Well, that’s, um. That’s good to know.” Harry points to the bacon and plate of toast. “Breakfast is ready. I only have strawberry and grape jellies, I ran out of blackberry yesterday.”

 

“This is wonderful, Haz, thanks,” Louis says, stepping up to the counter to fix his plate. He spreads a piece of toast with each kind of jelly, grabs several slices of bacon, and sits at the table. Harry informs him that he’s going to bring Gemma her food just in case she’s still asleep. With a few slices of bacon and two pieces of toast in his belly, Louis gains the courage he’d had last night. When Harry comes back, he says, “So you never accepted last night.”

 

Harry sits down and gazes at Louis, confused expression on his pretty face. “Accepted?”

 

“I asked you out. Indirectly, of course, but I still asked.” Louis shrugs. “You can say no.”

 

“No!” Harry exclaims. “I mean – no to saying no! I’d love to go out with you. A lot. I, um, I mean, yeah, sure. Whatever.”

 

Louis laughs. “I’m excited too, H, you don’t have to play cool.”

 

Harry squawks. “I will have you know, I’m _very_ cool, I’m not just playing cool.” He smiles at Louis, and. _Fuck me_ , Louis thinks, _dimples._

 

Louis is at least a little bit in love with this boy. “Of course, I only ask out the coolest boys.”

 

Harry nods, as if to say _good_ , and continues to dimple at Louis. He’s going to make Louis to something crazy, like wax poetry or do shots out of those cute craters in that cute face, and only Harry will be to blame. Harry’s talking, Louis notices, because those pretty pink lips are moving, but Louis is really inspecting those dimples. And then his eyes go up to Harry’s, and, fuck, of course, they’re perfect. They aren’t grey, like Louis had thought before, but a pale green with dark edges and Louis could probably stare at them for at least two hours without getting bored. But Harry’s still talking, and now he’s looking at Louis with a bit of concern on his face.

 

“Sorry, what did you say?”

 

Harry laughs. “I asked when and where you were taking me. Then you didn’t answer, so I told you the very awful story of the last date I went on. Blind date set up by Gem. He was very cute but he’s a singer that Niall knows, so all he did was tell me about his new album and fans that he’s slept with, made a few sexist jokes, and wouldn’t let me get dessert.”

 

Louis frowns. “The fuck? I don’t even want to know what his problem was. We’re getting dessert first, dear Harold, don’t you worry. We’ll get ice cream and then decide what to do from there.”

 

“That would be nice,” Harry says, looking down to hide his smile.

 

“You know—“ Louis starts.

 

“HARRY!” a voice from the back yells, cutting Louis off, the same one that had been yelling at them last night, but much more urgent. Gemma.

 

“What?!” Harry yells back at her.

 

“BABY!”

**Author's Note:**

> come scream at me on tumblr hfflpffhoe :)
> 
>  
> 
> http://hfflpffhoe.tumblr.com/post/139031660239/ill-just-wait-by-lpalms15-harry-goes-to-the-store


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